Here’s a picture I took of the Milky Way with my phone. My telescope rig is out of commission until I get my new (used) observatory up and running. I need to install the dome rotator, but I’m waiting on a part to arrive before I can finish.

This is all I’ve got for now. I took this last weekend with my Pixel phone in astrophotography mode.

If you want to see my older images, I have quite a few posted on Astrobin here: https://www.astrobin.com/users/BensAstroStuff/

  • lud@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Very cool!

    I wish he had less light pollution where I live.

  • Parzival@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Did not know the phones could do this! What’s your setup like? How long did the shutter need to be open for this?

    • Ben@beehaw.orgOP
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      1 year ago

      I think this was ~4 minutes worth of exposure time. I took this with my Pixel phone and Google’s astrophotography mode, which is part of the Night Sight setting. When the phone realizes it’s completely still, like on a tripod, and it’s looking at the sky, it gives you the option of taking pictures like this. It actually takes a lot of short exposures and stacks them. It’s a very automated process, so there’s not much tweaking to do. I do wish they gave the user more control.

      The setup for this picture was just my Pixel 6 Pro on a tripod pointing up. :)

      • Nate@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        I’ve got a pixel 7 pro and I can immediately recognize pixel’s astrophotography online. There’s something about it that nothing else replicates

        • reric88🧩@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          I have a pixel 7 pro and never used this feature. I’m going to give it a shot tonight! Disappointed I didn’t try during peak meteor showers…

    • Ben@beehaw.orgOP
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      1 year ago

      I think so, but I’m not sure how. I think some other phones are compatible and will ‘just work’ with Google’s camera app. Others need some configuration with 3rd party software. I’ve never done it.